Digital Cipher No. 20

I. Music & Tech

Spotify’s RISE

Spotify recently announced the launch of RISE, a new program designed to “identify and break the next wave of music superstars”. To leverage its base of 140 million listeners Spotify plans to market artists on their platform through curated playlists, as well as through out-of-home advertising, TV ads, and digital and social promotions. The RISE program will also go hand and with their original content initiative as promotion will be supplemented with live events featuring videos capturing the backstory of the selected artists. Read more about what Spotify’s Head of Global Creator Services Troy Carter has planned for RISE artists here.

Billboard Streaming Weight

Last week Billboard reported that they would be adjusting the way they weigh and calculate streams in 2018. Based on the evolution of music consumption and growing dominance by companies like Spotify, Billboard is going to be attributing more weight to paid music services. The need for reconsideration became quite clear after confirming that over 60% of the recent increase in annual revenues could be attributed these paid music services. Read more about the metrics and reporting changes here.